PHP Dynamic Images Loads Slowly!

[olddocks]

I have a very weird problem. I have a site where a php gd library script dynamically generates gif/png images as a bar indicator. These images i have checked are about 76 bytes each. Yet it loads slowly.

Earlier, i used mod rewrite to rewrite my url as a pure directory. for example...
/business/finance/banking/ where each category i show bar indicators to sites and the image tag i use <img src="/imagebar.php?color=red">

I tried another approach to save each bars separately as static gif files and i felt no difference at all, still loads slowly. i am getting insane with this. Does it has anything to do with mod rewrite slowing down?

here is my mod rewrite file...

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^(.+)\.gif$
RewriteRule ^(.+)\/$ listings.php?path=$1

[DanceInstructor]

Try:

RewriteRule ^(.+)\/$ listings.php?path=$1 [L,R]

[olddocks]

This is my true .htaccess file

AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .htm
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^sitereport([0-9]+)\.htm sitereport.php?sid=$1
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !^(.+)\.gif$
RewriteRule ^(.+)\/$ listings.php?path=$1
----------

I tried your [L,R] but seems no different in loading images. also, i used [L] but whenever i use [R] i get page not found error. i still think it has some thing to do with the images. any help would be very much appreciated.